Dr. Cossart is the Head of the Bacteria-Cell Interactions Group and a professor “Classe Exceptionelle” at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. She is also a Senior International Research Scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Cossart completed her undergraduate studies at Lille University. She received an MS in Chemistry from Georgetown University and a PhD in Biochemistry from the Pasteur Institute and the University of Paris.
Cossart’s lab uses a multi-disciplined approach to study infection by intracellular bacteria. Listeria monocytogenes is their primary model system. Over the years, Listeria has provided numerous insights into the infection process from both the bacterial and cellular sides.
Cossart’s contributions have been recognized with many honors. She is a member of the French Académie des Sciences, the German Leopoldina, the National Academy of Sciences USA and a foreign member of the Royal Society, London. She won the L’Oreal/UNESCO Award for Women in Science 1998, the Richard Lounsbery Prize 1998, the Rober Koch Prize 2007, the Jeantet Prize 2008, and the Balzan Prize 2013. In 2014, Cossart was awarded the FEBS/EMBO Women in Science Award.
